The Extracted
by Ozzy-Zike Fan 10.57
Summary: The SWAT Kats plus 8 other heroes have been kidnapped from their homes and taken to Yautja Prime. Led by Batman, the heroes must stay one step ahead of the Super Black Predators. Will they succeed? Will DarkWing Duck and Danny Phantom ever get along? Will Raimundo Pedrosa reveal his dark secret? Includes Kim Possible/Ron Stoppable pairing. Quasi-sequel to SWAT Kats vs. Predator.
1. Chapter 1: Upon Arrival

**Here's a story I thought up from watching the movie **_**Predators**_**; it'll show references from the movie along with **_**Predator**_** (1987) and **_**Alien vs. Predator **_**(2004). ****The Predator and all cartoon characters mentioned are owned by their respective companies,**** except for my OC's. Also, as a heads-up, it's been a long time since I watched **_**Batman: The Animated Series**_**, along with **_**Spider-Man: The Animated Series**_**, so I apologize ahead of time for any inaccuracies. Also, I was originally going to make the story AU from my other story **_**SWAT Kats vs. Predator: One of a Kind Adversaries**_**, but now I made it a sort-of quasi-sequel to **_**SKVP**_**. Plus, since the Batman in the story is from the cartoon, he has no connection with the **_**Batman vs. Predator**_** comics, or any other comics introducing the two characters together. But aside from all of that, I hope you enjoy the story.**

* * *

The wind whistled inside Batman's ears through his Bat-eared cowl, yet he wasn't completely aware of it, for he was groggily waking up. As his senses were fully gained, aside from a constant beeping that also filled his ears that most likely woke him up, he noticed a jungle from below him coming fast. He inwardly hesitated before the device stuck on him opened up into a parachute and landed safely on the forest floor (but not without a hard thud). After a moment of slowly gathering himself up, the Dark Knight removed the parachute from his back and looked around at his surroundings.

"Odd," said Batman to himself, "I wonder how I got here. I doubt the Joker was involved . . . at least not alone."

His train of thought was soon interrupted by another thud right behind him. The caped crusader turned around abruptly and raised a Bat-a-rang in throwing position.

"Hey!" yelled the individual underneath the parachute. "Who turned out the lights!?"

Batman relaxed a little and slowly lowered his Bat-a-rang, yet he still kept his guard up. He watched as whoever was under their parachute rip it away from them; the individual looked to be an anthropomorphic Duck with white feathers and wearing a suit, mask, cape, and hat, all purple in color.

"Ooooh, just wait 'til I get my hands on that Quackerjack!" growled the anthro-Duck to himself. "'Cause when I do, I will make him rue the day he . . . Huh?" The Duck paused for a moment as he looked at the scenery before him. "How did I . . . get here?"

"That, sir," stated Batman, "is the same thing I was wondering."

The purple-clad Duck jumped in surprise upon hearing the caped crusader. Turning around swiftly, the frightened anthro-Duck snapped, "Don't ever do that!"

"I apologize. Listen, I don't wish you any harm."

"Oh yeah?" The Duck then took out from his utility belt what appeared to be a gun. "How do I know that, hmm?"

"Because if I wanted to harm you, then we wouldn't be holding a conversation, now would we?"

With a thoughtful look, the Duck holstered back his weapon. ". . . _Touché_. . . . So what's with the get-up? Are you a superhero or something?"

"Yes, I am. You?"

"I am what you may call the terror that . . . ah, skip it. Yes, actually, I happen to be a superhero, specifically a vigilante from the city of St. Canard."

"Odd, I have never heard of your city."

"You haven't? Then where are _you_ from?"

"Gotham City."

"Huh, that's funny, I've never heard of that place either. I guess we aren't from the same world or anything, are we?"

"I don't believe we are—for more reasons than one."

Realizing that Batman was referring to what species they were, and remembering that there were probably only a handful of humans in his "neck of the woods," the Duck nodded his head. "Right."

"By the looks of the situation we're in, it seems that we might have to team up and figure out where we are, and how to get back to our homes."

"Yeah, I guess so, considering we're both heroes and, even though we probably aren't from the same planet or anything, heroes have to stick together."

"Indeed." The Dark Knight extended a hand out to his new ally. "The name's Batman."

The purple-clad Duck then shook hands with his new human ally. "Call me DarkWing Duck, but friends also call me 'DW' for short."

Soon the duo heard angry shouts in the distance. The shouts were then followed by a rather peculiar sound—a sound that was similar to a laser being shot.

Batman narrowed his eyes. "I don't like the sound of that. We better see what's going on. However, we must try to keep low."

"You got it!" declared DarkWing. "Let's . . . get . . . dangerous!"

"Shh!" whispered the caped crusader. "Let's go."

Moving quietly toward the sounds, Batman and DarkWing Duck moved behind a boulder and watched in front of them a man wearing a mask covering his entire head and clad in a red and blue bodysuit with a Spider and web design shooting what looked like (from DW's point of view), silly string from the underside of his wrists. The said man was fighting off and dodging green energy blasts from what looked to be a teenage boy with white hair, glowing green eyes, and a black bodysuit with a white collar, boots, belt, gloves, and a white "D" symbol with a black "P" symbol in it.

"Hold still so I could hit you!" shouted the teen.

After rolling out of the way of an energy blast and stopping right in front of Batman and DarkWing's boulder, the red-and-blue-clad man aimed and fired the odd substance from his wrist, which the teenage boy avoided by disappearing, and reappearing a second later. "How about you stay where you are so I can do the same?" retorted the man in the red and blue bodysuit with a growl.

"Take that!" roared the disgruntled teen. The boy fired off another blast of energy at the lithe man who easily steered clear of it, and ending up almost hitting DW's head if he and his new human partner didn't duck out of the way in time.

DarkWing popped his head back up again, glaring before he yelled. "Hey, watch where you aim, kid—you'll hurt someone with those things!"

The two rivals stopped their fighting as they heard DarkWing's voice. The black-clad teen arched an eyebrow and smirked, crossing his arms. "Who are _you_ supposed to be? Howard the Duck?"

"Ha-ha," fake-laughed DW in utter sarcasm, "that was _so_ funny I nearly forgot to laugh."

"Listen," started Batman as he and the purple-clad Duck moved from behind the boulder and in front of the two fighters, "we don't wish you any harm."

"And who are _you_ supposed to be? Batman?" questioned the white-haired teen.

"I am, actually."

"Any credentials? I like to know that you aren't some kind of poser or whatnot."

Without another word, Batman took out his grappling claw and tossed it to the teenager, who caught it in time. After looking it over once, the teen pressed the trigger and shot the claw out, after aiming at DarkWing's hat. He looked impressed as the grappling claw snatched up the hat and brought it right back to him. DarkWing, on the other hand, looked annoyed as he covered his head and scowled at the teen.

The teenager, in complete contrast, only smirked at DW. "Looking good there, boss." The black-clad teen then tossed the hat and grappling claw back to the Dark Knight. "Yep, I'm convinced."

Batman nodded his head as he handed DarkWing his hat back and holstered his gadget into his utility belt as he spoke. "I thought you would be, Danny Phantom."

"Wait—you know me?"

"You know him?" inquired an astonished DW.

"Yes," answered Batman, "I have read about you in the newspaper about how you saved Earth from that comet. I am also familiar with our other friend here, Spider-Man, through the same resource."

"I was fighting against _the_ Danny Phantom?" asked Spider-Man. He then turned to the ghost-boy. "I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you at first—I was just upset about being here that I thought you were the cause of it."

"Seriously?" chuckled Danny. "I personally thought that _you_ played a part in us being stranded here, Spider-Man." He then scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "I, too, am sorry for fighting against you, a fellow hero such as the three of us. . . . That is if 'Howard' over here is a hero."

Biting back his tongue about being called "Howard," DarkWing curtly stated, "Yes."

"So," said Danny, now facing Batman, "any idea what jungle we're in? Vietnam? India, perhaps?"

The Dark Knight shook his head. "I don't believe so. These trees look nothing like those found in Vietnam or India."

Danny then shrugged his shoulders in confusion. "Well, I guess it'll all make sense. Eventually." The ghost-boy was interrupted by the sound of rustling flora, his head whipping to the direction it came from. "Everyone, gather around me."

While DarkWing Duck was confused by that statement for a short time, he decided to just follow Batman and Spider-Man's idea. Soon the four heroes became intangibly imperceptible.

"So you two are from a metropolis called Megakat City?" asked a young-sounding feminine voice, belonging to what appeared to be an adolescent human girl with red hair dressed in a pink and white sci-fi-style outfit. With the girl were two anthropomorphic Cats wearing dark-colored pilot outfits. One was brawny with yellow fur, while his partner was much thinner and his fur was orange.

"Yeah," nodded the larger yellow feline, "that's pretty much the gist of it. . . . . Weird, I could've sworn I heard someone else around here, didn't _you_ guys hear it?"

"We heard it T-Bone," answered the smaller orange anthro-Cat, "yet I don't see anyone, or any_thing_ for that matter."

At that moment, the four invisible heroes reappeared in front of the three strangers. The two anthro-felines went into a fighting stance, going in front of the human redhead.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" frantically shouted a desperate Danny as he held up his hands. "We're not here to fight you!"

"How do we know you won't attack us if we let our guard down?" questioned T-Bone, the yellow anthro-feline, as his eyes narrowed with suspicion under the mask he wore.

"We give you our word as heroes that we won't attack."

The orange anthro-feline squinted an eye under his mask. "You guys fight for the right side?"

"Yes—" coolly stated Batman—"all of us. What about you three?"

"We do—" declared the girl—"all of us. The name's Atomic Betty, and these are the SWAT Kats, T-Bone and Razor."

"Hmm. Partners of yours?" inquired DarkWing.

"No, I just met them. You see, I was in summer camp when I got a call from Admiral DeGill about a disappearance on some uncharted planet. Somehow, I blacked out, got separated from my two partners, X-5 and Sparky, and now . . . well, you know."

"As for the two of us," stated T-Bone, "we just defeated an annoyingly persistent enemy of ours named Hard Drive—"

"But when we went back to our hangar," proceeded Razor, "we too blacked out all of a sudden, and before we knew it, somebody strapped parachutes to us and well, end of story."

"Really?" asked Danny. "That's the same thing that happened to me. . . . Well, from the blackout onward." As the ghost-boy was talking, DW and Spider-Man nodded their heads.

"It seems that all of us came here the same way;" pointed out the caped crusader; "we were in the middle of either a mission or fighting off an enemy, then we blacked out and been sent to some rainforest."

DarkWing Duck shrugged. "Yet what's the purpose of it all?"

"That's what I was wondering. Unless all of our enemies somehow have a connection amongst one another, then we might be dealing with something more sinister than we could imagine. And why we were picked specifically is the question."

"Help! Get me down from here!" shouted a distant voice in total panic.

"Come on!" declared Batman as he and his new allies ran towards the direction the voice was coming from.

As the group of seven got closer to the voice, what they saw before them were three human kids who looked to be the same age as Danny near a tree. The one whose parachute got tangled in the tree branches and hanging upside-down had blond hair and brown eyes, and he wore a black shirt, gray pants, a light brown belt, and dark gray gloves and shoes; the second teen who was on the ground was an attractive-looking girl with red hair and green eyes and wore a black crop top, green cargo pants, dark gray gloves, a brown belt hanging from her hips, and black shoes; the third teen, a brown-haired, green-eyed boy who looked to be of Brazilian descent, wore what looked to be a black martial arts robe with red trimming, a pair of red pants, and a gold sash.

"Kim, help me out!" shouted the blond-haired boy in panic. "I feel the blood rushing to my head—I swear I am!"

"Please Ron," soothed the red-haired girl, "just try to relax—we'll get you down from there."

It was then that everyone in the vicinity heard the sound of cloth getting torn.

"By the looks of things," said the Brazilian teen, "we better act fast. Hold still dude, and we'll try to catch you."

"What!? Are you nuts!?" questioned the teen called Ron. Soon the parachute ripped off of him and he was plummeting to the forest floor, screaming.

"I got him!" shouted Danny as he flew up to the frightened teen and caught him in the nick of time, just before setting him down. "Relax buddy, you're okay now."

"I am?" asked the blond-haired teen as he opened one eye before opening the other eye, looking down. "What do you know, I guess I _am_ all right. Err, thanks."

"Hey, amigo," interjected the Brazilian teen before giving Danny a double thumbs-up, "good save there."

"Yeah," nodded the girl called Kim, "thanks for helping us out."

"Please," said the ghost-boy as he held up his hands, "it's nothing that a hero can't take care of."

Smirking with a raised eyebrow, the Brazilian teen turned his attention to his two allies. "Sounds like he's on _our_ side."

"He is," said Batman as he and the other five heroes came forth, "as with the rest of us."

"No way!" breathed out Ron as he focused his attention on two certain heroes. "Look, KP—Batman and Spider-Man—together!"

Kim rolled her eyes, yet smirked at her naïve-sounding partner. "Yeah, I see that."

"Man, listen guys," said the happy blond-haired teen to the two renowned superheroes, "I'm like a big fan to both of you."

"Well then," figured Spider-Man, "I guess I'll take that as a compliment."

"Is that what you love about your boyfriend here, 'bright-eyes'?" slyly asked the Brazilian teen to Kim, in reference to Ron.

Kim smirked and shrugged her shoulders. "It's one of the things I've learned to love over the years we've known each other."

"And you must be the famous Danny Phantom, aren't you?" excitedly asked the blond teen.

The ghost-boy bowed gentlemanly from the waist. "At your service."

"Yeah, I remember—" stated the young Brazilian—"you're the guy with ghost powers who saved Earth from that comet, aren't you?"

"Yeah that's me. . . . And you must be?"

"Oh, right—where are my manners? The name's Pedrosa—Raimundo Pedrosa. But you can call me 'Rai' for short if you want, and 'Mr. and Mrs. Secret Agent' over here are . . ."

"Oh," said the teenage girl sheepishly, realizing that Raimundo was referring to she and her boyfriend, "sorry about that. My name's Kim Possible."

"Ron's the name—" proudly stated Kim's goofy boyfriend—"Ron Stoppable."

T-Bone chuckled a bit. "I dunno how many people pointed it out to you, but your names sound an awful lot like the words 'impossible' and 'unstoppable,' you know?"

Razor face-palmed himself out of complete embarrassment.

"Believe me," stated Kim in a deadpan voice as she and her partner in crime-fighting gave the larger SWAT Kat a dirty look, "it's not the first time somebody has pointed that out to us. And it probably won't be the last."

". . . Anyway," piped up Raimundo, trying to break the awkward tension, "who the heck are you guys?" He was eyeing at DarkWing Duck, Atomic Betty, and the SWAT Kats.

Batman motioned his head to the other vigilantes. "These four are fellow heroes DarkWing Duck, Atomic Betty, and the SWAT Kats Razor and T-Bone."

"I see. . . . Lemme guess: total blackout, followed by a parachute ride, correct?"

"Indeed. Aside from _how_ we were transported here, we're still trying to think _where_ we are."

"Beats me—Borneo, the Congo, Indonesia, Burma—we could be anywhere for that matter."

"How about the Amazon?" shrugged Ron.

Raimundo shook his head. "It can't be—the jungle we're in is _way_ too hot to be the Amazon, and we're in summer to boot."

Kim rose her eyebrows at that. "Hmm, sounds like you are quite familiar with it."

"I should be familiar with it. Before I went to the Xiaolin Temple in China, I've been born, raised, and worked at my family's circus in Brazil, so I think I know at least a thing or two about the Amazon. . . . Okay, why are we playing a guessing game—doesn't _anybody_ have a GPS on them or what?"

Atomic Betty set her face in her hand before shaking her head in embarrassment. "How could I be so stupid? I can just call Admiral DeGill and see if he could locate us."

"Hey Kim, can't we just call Wade and see if he can tell us where we are?" Ron asked his girlfriend.

The spy girl pulled out her Kimmunicater. "Good idea, Ron. Let's see if I can reach him. . . . Wade, are you there? Wade?"

"What's the problem?" inquired Spider-Man.

"I don't know," answered Kim, "I can't reach Wade, and there doesn't seem to be any reception here. Betty, have you contacted anyone?"

"Bad news—" stated Betty—"I can't reach anyone either."

Raimundo pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Well, talk about a fine kettle of fish we're in."

With his arms folded across his chest, DarkWing arched an eyebrow. "You took the words right out of my mouth, kid." The anthro-Duck turned his attention to the Dark Knight. "Now what?"

"Everyone follow me," stated Batman, "I'm sure we might figure out where we've been transported to if we reach higher ground."

* * *

Some time had passed by as the group of ten heroes walked through the jungle in search of high ground, with Batman as the leader. Ron stopped for a moment to look at a plant.

"Hey guys," called the goofball teen, "take a look at the plant here." As he was about to touch one of the plant's barbs, Batman reacted quickly and grabbed the teen's hand.

"Wait a minute, Ron," warned the caped crusader, "that plant could be dangerous." Grabbing a Bat-a-rang from his utility belt, Batman collected a bit of the green ooze secreting from the plant—the touch of the Bat-a-rang making the plant slowly close—and observed it closely. "Just as I thought: the plant is secreting a neurotoxin; if you should even accidentally scratch yourself on a barb of such plant, you would undergo paralysis for a certain amount of time depending on the amount. I suggest everyone to steer clear of it."

Ron wiped his brow and let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Batman—I owe you one."

"Don't mention it. Come everyone, we must keep moving."

Little did Batman or the other heroes know was that something shrouded in the shadows watched from behind them. . . .

* * *

It wasn't long before they reached an area with cages and parachutes scattered all over from up in the trees to down on the forest floor.

"What's with all the cages? Circus in town or what?" asked Danny.

"Are you kidding?" Rai arched an eyebrow. "I don't know a circus alive that drops caged animals by parachute. Looks a lot like something you would see in a movie than real life."

"I don't know about you guys," stated Kim, "but I have a bad feeling."

"Like we're being watched?" asked Ron, whipping his head from one side, then the other. "'Cause I'm getting the heebie-jeebies just looking at all these cages. What if whatever was in them is still around?"

"My Spidey senses aren't tingling," shrugged Spider-Man, "so I don't think we have to worry about it."

"No," the spy girl shook her head, "it's not that, necessarily. Let's think for a minute: whatever these cages were transporting were brought here by parachute. All of us came here by parachute as well. Isn't there a connection somewhere?"

"Don't look now," said T-Bone, "but I think the connection is right over there."

Following the direction the larger SWAT Kat was facing, the heroes looked at what appeared to be a white human skeleton smiling eerily back at them; the only thing intact with the skeleton was a tattered gray suit and pants and an empty handgun, yet the only thing missing at the same time were four fingers—two on the left, two on the right—along with the middle of its chest. As the heroes walked closer to the skeleton, a Cockroach crawled out of either of the empty eye sockets, sending all except Batman to visibly shudder in disgust.

"Looks like he decomposed for quite some time," pointed out the Dark Knight, "and it seems that he lost his four fingers long before death. I wonder . . ." He moved in closer and unfolded the flap of his suit, revealing a red insignia. Batman then stood up and turned back to his allies. "It looked like he was a member of the Yakuza; the four missing fingers was most likely a sign that he underwent _yubitsume_. Judging by the empty gun, he was shooting at something, yet couldn't kill what was after him. The oddest thing is his chest: judging by the scorch marks, it looked like something burnt through him."

"I don't know about you guys," piped up Razor, "but I for one don't want to know what that thing was. And I don't want to stay here and eventually find out."

"With all due respect," said Rai, "but what did the guy once being a member of the Yakuza have _anything_ to do with our situation?"

Batman nodded his head in understanding. "Good question, Raimundo. I believe I know why we are here. . . . I believe we're here because somebody chose us."

"For what, though?"

"To test our abilities. It seems that somebody had chosen us because we were deemed worthy to be hunted."

"Hunted? . . . You mean someone is probably chasing us for sport? If so, then why aren't our enemies alongside us? Why aren't they stuck here with us?"

". . . Someone must have recognized we are stronger than our enemies. However, I'm not concerned as to _who_ brought us here—not as much as finding a way out. Eventually we'll know who brought us here afterwards."

"Personally, I hope we find a way out—and soon before we join 'Mr. Yakuza Member' over there."

"Don't worry, we'll find a way back, Raimundo. Let's go and find the high ground."

"Good," nodded DarkWing, "'cause I have a feeling something really _is_ watching us."

As the heroes started to move along, the teenage Xiaolin monk paused as he noticed a bag, and soon curiosity got the best of him. Grabbing a stick, Raimundo poked at the bag a couple times before hooking it on, retrieving it, and looking inside it; inside the bag were grenades. With a look of ponder on his face, Rai shrugged, tightened the bag shut with its strings, and decided to take it with him as he tied it to his sash.

As Raimundo caught up with his allies and walked beside Danny, the ghost-boy noticed the bag on his hip. "Hey Raimundo, what do you have there?"

The Xiaolin monk shrugged his shoulders, treating it like it was nothing. "Just a bag of grenades—thought they might come in good use."

"How are you sure of that?"

"Eh, let's just say that if Batman's hypothesis about us being hunted is correct, then I would like to be prepared for our would-be hunters. Do you catch my drift?"

". . . Good thinking, actually. You don't plan on using them, do you?"

"Nah—just to show them we mean business, really—setting them off's the last resort. Besides, whoever had the grenades probably won't be needing them anytime soon."

"Point taken."

* * *

One or two hours had passed by since the heroes left the cage-littered patch of jungle. One or two hours had passed by in dead quiet. . . .

"So," started Raimundo to break the ice of silence as he focused his attention on Kim, Ron, and Danny, "what were the three of you doing before being Shanghaied?"

Kim sighed. "Not much to tell, other than Ron and I were given an assignment by Global Justice to stop our nemesis Señor Senior, Sr. and his son Señor Senior, Jr. from taking over the world, like they usually try to do."

"Yeah," nodded Ron, "we foiled their plan, and they escaped from getting arrested like always."

"And that was when you blacked out?" guessed Raimundo.

"You got it."

"As for me," shrugged Danny, "I was busy in fighting Skulker. Before I could give the final blow, I had mysteriously blacked out and been Shanghaied, as you put it earlier. What's your story, Raimundo?"

"A little bit like yours, Danny," answered Rai in a casual tone, "for I too was engaged in battle with one of my enemies, Katnappe. As I was about to challenge her to a Xiaolin Showdown in an attempt to win over the Shen Gong Wu she had taken for Wuya and Jack Spicer, everything went black and before I knew it, I was about to crash and burn in the jungle. Well, it would have happened if I didn't have a parachute on me."

Elsewhere in the group, Betty looked thoughtful about something. "Hey guys, how long have we been walking?"

"About one or two hours, why?" asked Spider-Man.

"I've just noticed that the sun hasn't moved in all that time."

"So does that mean I'm _not_ the only one who noticed that?" asked Raimundo.

"No, Rai," said Kim, "we've _all_ noticed the sun not moving."

"That's not all, though—" said Betty—"take a look here, everyone." The Galactic Guardian grabbed a leaf and crouched down over a puddle.

"Err, what are you doing?" asked Danny to Betty, confusedly.

"It's something I learned from summer camp." As the adolescent heroine placed the leaf in the middle of the puddle, it started spinning in circles.

"Hey, how are you doing that?" asked Ron in amazement.

"I'm not—" shrugged Betty—"the leaf is doing it all by itself. I noticed the same thing happening earlier today in another puddle of water; it's almost as if the jungle doesn't have any magnetic force."

That left Darkwing scratching his head in confusion. "Well that doesn't make sense. How can one jungle have no magnetic field or whatnot?"

"And there's a magnetic force on your planet?" asked the Dark Knight.

"Sure there is. . . . Okay, I see where you're getting at—no we are _not_ on my planet. If we were, then I'm _positive_ that I would recognize the jungle we're in like the back of my hand." And as emphasis, the anthro-Duck held up either hand before looking at it strangely. "Hmm, I didn't recognize that."

"And don't ask about our planet—" stated Razor—"there's a magnetic force, too."

"Your worlds are no different from ours really, are they?" asked Danny with a raised eyebrow.

"It's shocking, huh?" shrugged T-Bone.

Batman started walking forward to a cliff. "Come, everyone."

Stopping by the cliff, Batman scanned the entire rainforest below him, searching for ancient ruins or whatnot—just something to indicate where he and his motley crew of heroes were stranded. "I don't see anything that would indicate what rainforest we're in."

"I don't know about everyone else here," stated T-Bone, "but the whole thing is _really_ messed up, you know?"

Razor was wide-eyed as he stared up at the sky. "Want to know what else is pretty messed up around here?"

"What?" asked a confused DarkWing.

"Look."

Following where the smaller orange Kat was pointing, the other nine heroes looked up and noticed the multi-colored sky and its two suns. Batman had a worried look on his face, DarkWing went slack-jawed as his eyes bulged to the size of saucers, Spider-Man most likely looked surprised (if not for his mask covering his face), T-Bone had an equally sickened/surprised look on his face as his partner, and the rest of the heroes looked up in wide-eyed shock.

Raimundo crossed himself as he muttered in Spanish, "_Madre de Simon Bolivar_." **(A/N: The reference about Rai being Catholic was probably an extra characteristic I had thrown in. Also, for those who didn't know, **_**Madre de Simon Bolivar**_** translates to "Mother of Simon Bolivar" in English.)**

Only a moment of eerie silence passed by before Ron finally cracked. "That's it! We're done for! Game over! We're gonna die out here—out on some uncharted planet!"

"Ron," said a desperate Danny, "get a hold of yourself!"

"We're doomed! _Doomed_ I tell you!"

"Calm down, Ron!" firmly stated Batman.

"We'll never see our family or friends again!"

"Ron," said Rai, nervously, through clenched jaws, "you're tripping out on us."

"Please tell me it's not happening—please tell me it's some nightmare that I'm not waking up from! Somebody! _Anybody_!"

A concerned Kim slapped her panic-stricken boyfriend across the face. "Ron—snap out of it!"

"Kim, what just happened?" asked the goofy teen in an exhausted, dumbstruck voice. "I just blacked out for a second there."

The spy girl grabbed her boyfriend by the shoulders and spoke to him in a mostly firm-sounding voice as she shook him a little. "Listen to me Ron—_nobody_ is going to die out here. We are going to figure out how we'll get back home, but we need you to try and pull yourself together. Understand me?"

"Yeah, yeah—I understand KP. Crystal clear."

"Good. . . ." The spy girl paused for a moment, thinking about slapping the goofball teen. "Sorry about that."

"No, no, I had that coming."

". . . Hey Spider-Man, what's up with you?" asked DarkWing.

The famed web-slinger was looking up in the trees, and he didn't keep his eyes off of them as everyone followed his gaze. "I thought I saw something move in the trees."

_*(Enter Predator Thermal Vision)*_

"Do you see anything?" asked Spider-Man.

DW paused for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't. What about you guys?"

"Sorry," apologized Betty, "but I don't see anything."

_*(Exit Predator Thermal Vision)*_

The famed web-slinger sighed. "It's probably nothing. I guess I'm on edge right now that my Spidey senses are playing tricks on me."

Everyone paused for only a moment before Batman broke the silence. "I think it's time that we come up with a game plan."


	2. Chapter 2: The Campsite

"Help me!" called out a raspy feminine voice. Everyone paused at the sound of that.

"Did you hear that?" asked Kim.

"Help me!" the voice called out again.

Ron nodded his head. "Yeah, I heard that."

The caped crusader started running. "Everyone—follow me."

The ten heroes went in the direction the call for help was coming from. As they stopped, all was quiet and they saw that right in the center was a beige-colored anthropomorphic feline—a Kat like Razor and T-Bone—slouched over, unmoving, in a grassy clearing.

"Hey," said T-Bone, "I recognize her outfit. Razor, look at her uniform—she looks like one of Turmoil's pilots, doesn't she?"

Razor squinted a little and recognized the uniform the She-Kat wore. "You're right, T-Bone, she _does_ look like she works for Turmoil. Or at least she used to before coming here. Yet why was she brought here?"

As the SWAT Kats moved a little closer, Batman held up a hand. "Wait a minute—it could be a trap." The caped crusader then picked up a rock and tossed it still a couple yards away from the She-Kat, setting off an electric field.

"_YEESH_," grimaced DarkWing, "there's something you don't see every day."

"Granted she is a villain," said the smaller orange SWAT Kat to the Dark Knight, "but we can't just leave her there."

The larger yellow SWAT Kat nodded. "I agree with my buddy here—being a hero means that you must help all others in need; it doesn't matter whether they're good or bad."

"I understand," stated Batman, "but something doesn't seem right."

"What? What doesn't seem right?" asked Betty.

"I've just got a hunch. . . . Spider-Man, see if you can fire one of your webs at her."

Not bothering to ask why, the web-slinger did as he was told and fired a web onto the She-Kat's back. No response came from the She-Kat as she keeled over to one side.

The Dark Knight sighed. "Just what I was afraid of. We didn't make it in time to save her. And now that somebody is using her for bait, there is nothing we can do now." Although the heroes didn't want to leave the corpse in that trap, the reluctantly started to move along. . . .

"Help me!"

The surprised heroes froze in their tracks as they whipped their heads around to the dead She-Kat. How could she still call for help if she was supposed to be dead?

"I don't know about you guys," gulped a fearful Danny, "but I think we should just keep moving along. Let's just try to ignore that."

"Yep," nodded DW, "sounds logical enough."

"Personally," stated Spider-Man, "I, too, would just keep moving on."

"Good," said Batman, "the sooner the better." Soon all the heroes left the booby-trap and trekked onward.

* * *

During that time, Raimundo had lagged a little at the end of the pack. Noticing that, Kim and Ron slowed down for the Xiaolin monk to catch up; as the two spies did so, they immediately noticed the troubled look on Rai's face.

"Raimundo?" asked a concerned Kim. "Is something troubling you?"

The Xiaolin monk shook his head. "It's nothing major. I was just thinking about that booby-trap we passed by a bit ago."

"Yeah, that was freaky that she was still calling out for help, wasn't it?" asked Ron (in reference to the dead She-Kat).

"It wasn't that, necessarily—it's just the idea of leaving her there. She might have been a crook from where T-Bone and Razor came from, but still, leaving her in that trap—dead or alive—it just felt so . . . wrong. It's almost as if we . . ." Raimundo trailed off, a look of remembrance on his face.

"As if we what?" asked the goofy blond-haired teen.

". . . As if we betrayed our role as heroes."

"Betrayal?" asked the red-haired spy girl. "I don't understand."

Raimundo looked down at the ground with a melancholy sigh. "It's complicated. I have had a few so-called 'allies' betray me and my friends, but none of them could top off one traitor that I know too well."

"Who was it?"

". . . Well, that traitor was—"

Before the Xiaolin monk could finish, the conversation and the trek were interrupted by an odd sound above the ten heroes. While they all looked up, some of them took their weapons out.

"D-d-d-do you guys see it?" stuttered Ron.

"No," answered Kim, her eyes scanning the sky, "but whatever it was, it's gone now."

"Shh!" whispered Raimundo. "I hear something in the bushes!"

As everyone stayed silent, the rustling in the bushes became louder, and soon they heard animalistic growling.

"Everyone!" ordered Batman. "Stay where you are!"

After a moment, a Predator Hound came charging at the heroes. Spider-Man aimed and fired a web right at the alien creature, leaving it to angrily writhe in the white net.

"Boo-yah!" happily cheered Ron as he thrust a fist in the air, while the rest of the heroes looked pleased with their small victory.

Soon, however, the Predator Hound ripped open the web and let out a bellow. It was then that nine more of its bloodthirsty cohorts burst through the brush.

"Oh, crud!" exclaimed Razor as he and the other heroes looked onward in shock.

"Don't worry guys," called Raimundo as he stepped into the range of the oncoming Predator Hounds, "I've got it. Typhoon Clap! Wind!"

Using his Xiaolin wind power, the Brazilian teen clapped his hands and sent a large gust of wind towards the Hounds, literally blowing them off their feet and sending them a few yards back. But just as soon as they hit the ground, they quickly picked themselves up and charged at the heroes again.

Spider-Man attempted another shot at one of the Hounds with his web. "Here's web in your eye!"

And literally, the famed web-slinger aimed at the Hound's eyes, disorientating it for a couple moments. With Spider-Man shooting at the Hounds' eyes and Danny Phantom using his energy blasts to send them back, one of them tried to jump Batman, but the Dark Knight reacted by ducking under the airborne creature, grabbing its hind legs, spinning around, and throwing his would-be attacker at two members of its pack; after snapping at each other for a quick moment, the three Predator Hounds joined the rest of the pack as they rushed at the heroes again. DarkWing and the SWAT Kats then threw a few smoke bombs to try and deter the Predator Hounds, but they were still coming at their larger prey. Two of the creatures advanced towards Atomic Betty—one to her left, and the other to her right—but as they crept closer to her in the most portentous way imaginable, the Galactic Guardian had a serious glare.

"I'm warning you," ominously stated Betty, "don't you dare come any closer."

The two Predator Hounds rushed her, but as Atomic Betty jumped up, the Galactic Guardian sent a martial-arts-style spin kick to both their faces and left them sprawled on the ground before retreating elsewhere.

Smirking, Betty shrugged mockingly. "I warned you."

"Yo Betty," said Raimundo as he and the Galactic Guardian went back to back, "awesome spin attack on 'Homely and Homelier.' I didn't know you were a martial arts pro."

"Yeah, it helps me out in being the Galactic Guardian."

"Sweet."

Kim's foot connected to the under-jaw of a Predator Hound crawling too close to her; after being sent on its back the creature got up and growled at the spy girl before withdrawing from the one-against-one scrimmage.

Smirking with her hands on her hips, Kim rolled her eyes as she jeered. "So not the drama."

The spy girl then heard growling from behind her, and yelped after being taken by surprise by one of the Predator Hounds that snuck up behind her and jumped her.

"Kim!" yelled Ron in concern as he saw his girlfriend pinned to the ground and the savage creature's jaws opened, ready to strike. Picking up a fist-sized rock, the goofball teen threw it into the Hound's side, the irked creature looking up at the threat.

"Hey, ugly!" shouted Ron. "Leave her alone!"

The irritated Hound jumped off of Kim and took off running into Ron's direction.

"Oh darn." The goofball teen grabbed a stick but since the Predator Hound jumped on top of him, Ron dropped his weapon of choice due to the impact. He held back the beast by two of its long horns as it clawed at the blond-haired teen and savagely snapped its jaws. "Help!"

"Ron!" yelled a concerned Kim.

Hearing the shouts of panic from his two friends, Raimundo kicked a Predator Hound away from him, grabbed the grappling claw from Batman's utility belt, and as the Xiaolin monk aimed at the creature's neck and pressed the trigger, Rai yanked the Hound off the blond-haired teen and sent it elsewhere into one of its pack members, the latter advancing towards T-Bone and Razor before it was rudely knocked out of the way.

"How do you like me now, 'stumpy'!?" Raimundo called out to the creature he threw a bit ago. "You mess with my friends, you mess with me!"

As the ten heroes gathered up into one group again, they were cornered by the pack of ten Predator Hounds, growling and snapping their jaws with menacing anticipation and moving in closer and closer like a pack of Wolves to a Bull Moose.

"Any ideas?" asked Spider-Man, his voice on the verge of panic.

A moment passed by before Danny stepped between his friends and the Hounds, the ghost-boy facing the alien creatures.

"Everyone!" the ghost-boy called over his shoulder. "Cover your ears!"

As the nine heroes did as they were told, Danny, with a snarl on his face, looked at the Predator Hounds before letting out his Ghostly Wail. After a moment of the Hounds cringing from the sonic scream and/or flying through the air a bit, the exhausted ghost-boy turned back into his black-haired, blue-eyed human form as he fell over backwards; Batman caught him in time.

As the heroes gathered around him, Danny stated tiredly, "Seemed like a good idea at the time." They figured out what he meant as the Predator Hounds recuperated from the ear-splitting ordeal, advancing again.

All of a sudden, a high-pitched whistle was heard. Paying attention to it the ten Predator Hounds ran in the direction it came from.

DarkWing had a sly, satisfied smirk on his bill as he mocked to Danny, "Looking good there, boss."

With Batman and the SWAT Kats helping him back up, Danny rubbed his head while trying to gain his bearings.

"The heck was that about?" asked T-Bone.

"That," said Danny, "was the Ghostly Wail, a sonic scream that ghosts, or anybody with ghost powers, can emit. However, using it would drain a lot of energy out of someone my age—but fortunately it doesn't last long."

"That was quick-thinking, Danny," stated Batman, "but try to save your ghost powers until you feel better."

"Will do."

"I might be asking a dumb question right now," stated Ron, "but did _those_ things bring us here?"

"No," answered Kim, "I don't think so."

"Batman?" asked Raimundo, his face looking almost like it was in a trance.

"What?" inquired the Dark Knight.

"Remember when you said that somebody was probably hunting us?"

"I remember. What about it, Raimundo?"

"I'm starting to think that you were right. I heard a whistling sound—you know, like a Dog whistle, only easier for us to hear. I might be imagining things, but I think whoever, or _what_ever, is hunting us is probably bigger than those creatures we were just fighting a bit ago, because I think they were like Hounds. You know how hunters would use Dogs to flush out game animals such as Wild Boar or Birds? I think that we are just like that, and we've just been flushed out and they have our scent."

"What makes you sure of that?" asked an intimidated DarkWing.

The tense moment was killed as Raimundo casually answered. "Well, that's something I would probably do if I were big on hunting, not to mention that Clay, one of my friends back at the Xiaolin Temple, told me some rather tall hunting stories in Texas—not that I believed in any of them, but they were always amusing to hear."

"No, Raimundo," Batman shook his head, "I believe you're right about those creatures. The planet we're on is like a game preserve, and we are the game. We need to figure out who or what we are up against before we figure out a way back home."

"What for?" asked Ron.

". . . Because I'm starting to doubt that any of our enemies are involved. The Hound tracks go that way—if we follow them, then we should be at the hunters' campsite."

* * *

After following the tracks for a ways, the heroes came up to a hunting campsite, fires blazing, and banners and tents made of leather and hides and bones were there, along with scattered piles of white skulls—skulls that belonged to unfortunate humans and other creatures from beyond Earth or wherever DarkWing and the SWAT Kats came from.

In a hushed tone, the Dark Knight turned to his nine allies. "Everyone move cautiously and quietly."

The ten heroes crept through the camp, a few of them stepping over a skull that they didn't bother looking at. . . . If they did, they would have noticed its eerie reminiscence to an anthropomorphic form of Crab.

Batman stopped, followed by the other nine heroes when the former held out his arm, as they gaped at a strange muscular being with beige scaly skin, long claws, a brown loincloth, a fishnet jumpsuit, and an odd device strapped to its wrist chained to an intricately carved, yet oddly shaped, metal monolith; the alien being's head hung low and its face was obscured by the black dreadlock-like extensions.

"Any idea what that is?" whispered Spider-Man, actually in reference to the totem.

"No," whispered back Batman, "I'm afraid not. Looks like that thing chained up is dead."

Moving closer to it, the heroes stared at it for some time—Razor and T-Bone looking at it in the oddest of ways—before Danny bent down and picked up a thin broken tree limb. Slowly, he advanced towards the being, and the ghost-boy then just touched it with the tip of the tree limb.

The creature whipped its head upward and let out a bone-chilling, blood-curdling roar. Batman and Spider-Man were frightened by the sudden surprise (yet they didn't visibly show it); Danny, after dropping the stick, jumped back with a gasp; Betty gasped as well with a shudder; Ron screamed in panic as he jumped into a frightened and caught-off-guard Kim's arms; DarkWing jumped into both T-Bone and Razor's arms (the SWAT Kats wide-eyed in surprise), the anthro-Duck biting his nails nervously; and in the back, an extremely frightened, wide-eyed Rai crossed himself again, his voice trembling as he muttered a prayer in Portuguese.

The Predator had a high forehead, beady yellow-green eyes sunk deep into its skull, a green scar down the left side of its face, and four mandibles behind a mouthful of teeth (mostly on the bottom jaw). The Predator writhed in its chains, its dreadlock-like extensions almost flying in all directions as it angrily whipped its head around, growling and roaring the whole time.

Pointing at it, Ron asked in complete panic, "What is that thing!?"

"How the heck should we know!?" yelled Danny angrily, yet with fear in his voice. "Ask Betty—she's the Galactic Guardian!"

"I've never seen it before in my life!" yelled Betty defensively.

"Everybody calm down!" commanded the caped crusader in a firm tone, yet he didn't yell it out. "So long as that thing's chained up, we should be safe from it."

"Wait a minute," said Spider-Man in an intimidated voice, "my Spidey senses are tingling. . . . I sense three more presences here."

Focusing on a patch of jungle, Danny could see a clear silhouette as it made the patch of jungle he kept focus on have a rippling effect to it. It was then he saw a pair of yellow lights briefly flash.

His face contorted in panic, Danny fired off a blast of energy at the silhouette, the latter making an aggravated bark.

"Everybody run!" yelled the ghost-boy. The nine heroes took off running while Danny fired off a few more energy blasts before joining his allies. Behind them, the invisible threats fired blue balls of plasma, each of them missing their running target.

As the heroes ran for their lives away from the hunting camp, they were suddenly given a rude awakening once they went down a rather steep slope. They went slipping downward for only a minute before they saw the end.

"Oh, crud!" yelled T-Bone.

They soon found themselves in midair and plummeting towards a rather large lake. After crashing into the water, the heroes were submerged for only a moment before they started bobbing up, all of them wearily swimming to shore. Above their heads, the Predator scouting device flew over them, but the heroes didn't hear it due to the roar of the waterfalls. The reconnaissance captured their location and heat signatures as it flew back. . . .

* * *

. . . Flew back to the Predator hunting site. The Falconer Predator was the first to turn off his invisibility cloak after calling back his scouting device. The tall, muscular, gray-skinned alien monster wore a fishnet jumpsuit, a black loincloth, and armor. Strapped on his hips were a Smart Disc and a Combistick, along with a pair of Wristblades on his right hand and a Plasmacaster mounted on his shoulder. His dreadlock extensions were red on the bottom half. His mask, unlike most other Predator masks, was made of the bones from his past kills.

The second to appear from the invisibility cloak was the Tracker Predator; the biggest distinction was that it was a female due to her lean yet muscular build, her wide hips, and, in her species' standard body structure, a foot taller. She also wore an outfit fairly similar to the Falconer Predator's, along with gray skin and her dreadlock extensions being half-black and half-red. Aside from her Wristblades, the Tracker Predator had a Smart Disc and a Maul made from the jawbone of something carnivorous and long ago dead strapped to her hips, while the Plasmacaster mounted to her shoulder was also made of bone. Her mask was dark brown with two hollow beige saber-teeth facing downward and attached to her mask with holes drilled out.

The third and final Predator to turn off his invisibility cloak, standing next to the chained-up Predator from behind the totem, was the Alpha Predator, the leader out of the entire band of three. Taller than both partners, and with their combined strengths, the Alpha Predator differed between his party members in more ways than one; while both of his partners had gray skin, his was pure white; the loin cloth he wore was blood red; his armor was heavier than his partners'; and he had two identical Raptor skull Spearguns strapped to his hips, while his Glaive and Maul were strapped to his back in an "X" shape. Compared to his partners—and most of his species for that matter—he carried not one set, but _two_ sets of Wristblades; and both sets had not double, but _triple_ blades. The Plasmacaster mounted on his shoulder was twice the size of his partners' and the targeting lights, while most of them were on the far side of a Predator's mask, his was right in the center. As for the Alpha Predator's mask itself, it was jet black with red symbols covering the forehead piece, along with two small skeletons of extra-terrestrial serpents attached to the sides connecting the forehead piece. Like his partners though, the extensions on his skull were half-black, half-red, but they were longer by an inch.

As he saw the reconnaissance return to them, the Alpha Predator chillingly growled with ardor. . . .


	3. Chapter 3: The Hunter Became the Hunted

Meanwhile, back at the lake, the heroes climbed out at the nearest shore, saturated with water as they either wrung out their clothes or wiped off the excess water from them. While everyone was busy doing that, Raimundo checked his stash of grenades in the gunny sack he took with him earlier. He relaxed a little to see they were intact before wiping the water off himself.

"Okay, I'm going to ask as calmly as possible," said DarkWing Duck to Danny, at first calmly, but then with vexation, "but _**what . . . the heck were you thinking**_!?"

"Well what was I supposed to do—let everyone get ambushed?" snapped the ghost-boy. "FYI, all ten of us are still here, you know!"

"What I meant was have us go through the running and the going-down-the-slope and the making-a-splash-in-the-lake ordeal! You could have transported all of us somewhere different!"

"Oh yeah? Well, newsflash: when I saved my planet, I wasn't alone—I had _every_ ghost—friend and foe—help me turn it intangible!"

"Get to the point, kid!"

"The point!? _You_ want the _point_!? Well let me tell you the _point_—if it took thousands of ghosts plus me to turn Earth intangible, then I don't think that I alone turning nine extra people intangible would be possible!"

"I don't care if you could use a dome made of ectoplasm! Aside from that point, you have any idea—_any idea at all_—that you could have been killed staying behind like that!?"

"Oh gee, I didn't think your heart had room to care for me!"

"I only care because you're still a kid! And another thing—waking up that thing strung up on that totem!"

"Oh, what's the big deal!?"

"If you didn't poke at it, then we wouldn't have nearly got our heads blown off to begin with!"

"Oh, so that's my fault!?"

"Would you two just _shut up_ for a moment!?" snapped Kim as she wrung the water out of her long hair. "The point is that we're still alive, so why can't you two just give yourselves a break?"

"Yeah," calmly said Spider-Man, nodding his head, "the two of you have practically been at each other's throats since you crossed paths. Can't you both just relax and try to get along?"

". . . Maybe," answered Danny, "eventually." The ghost-boy then walked off to where some of the other heroes were, along with the famed web-slinger.

"Well I might be able to get along with him," stated DW, "but I will _not_ relax—I _can't_ relax. I am _always_ tense." At that moment, the anthro-Duck stood rigid, a freaked out look on his face as he stated in a strained, just-as-freaked-out voice, "Why, I feel so tense that I think I have a Spider or something in relation to it on my back right now—that's how tense I feel. And I mean no offense to Spider-Man either."

"Oh, come on," scoffed Raimundo, "dude, you do _not_ have a Spider on your back."

"Then what do you think I have—a leaf?"

"Uh, yeah. Look around—there are trees, so that seems pretty logical that you should have a leaf on your back, and _not_ a Spider. Or anything like that, considering we're on a far-off planet."

"Well get it off, and maybe I'll try to relax a little."

"I'm not gonna get it off for you."

"Do it!"

"All right, all right! Geez, don't bite my head off! Just turn around and I'll get the 'Spider' off your back, _cumprende_?" The Xiaolin monk then whispered aside to Kim and Ron, "I have never seen an adult act like such a crybaby before in all my life."

After the anthro-Duck turned around, it turned out that the "leaf" really was a small alien creature that vaguely resembled a Spider. Seeing that, the three teens looked at it for a moment with wide-eyed shock before Raimundo grabbed a thick twig and batted the creature away and off of DW's back before hiding the twig behind him.

DarkWing Duck then turned around with a worried look. "Well?"

Rai, Kim, and Ron smiled widely and nervously as the teenage Xiaolin monk spoke, "Err, leaf—heh-heh—told ya."

"Oh," said DW, happier and a little bit relaxed, "well that's good."

As the anthro-Duck turned away, the three teenagers also relaxed.

"Okay," whispered Rai to the two spies, "let's pretend that never happened."

Kim nodded. "Affirmative."

Ron then added, "Ditto." The teens then did a three-way knuckle-pound.

Sitting on a rock, T-Bone took off his helmet and was drenched in the face by the water collected in it. Looking annoyed about it, the larger yellow Kat wiped the water off his face before speaking. "You know, if I could name off five of the most intense moments that happened in my life, _that_ would be three of them."

Razor, who was sitting adjacent to his partner, wrung out his gloves. "You said a mouthful, buddy."

"Batman," said Betty to the caped crusader, "I'm sorry for what happened at the campsite."

"Why are you sorry?" inquired Batman.

"Well, when Danny made that point about me being the Galactic Guardian, I didn't have an answer as to what that thing was chained to that totem. I am still learning about the different species of aliens in the universe, yet there have been no records about those creatures we've faced recently."

"Apology accepted, Betty. But if I could give you advice, I'd suggest telling Admiral DeGill about the alien species we have just encountered."

"I would do that, definitely, but what do we really know about them?"

"Maybe my partner and I can tell you?" asked Razor.

"Wait," said Danny, "you guys know about those things?"

"Yeah," sighed T-Bone, "we know all about them. . . . You see, we Kats don't have a proper name for them, but we call those aliens the Predator."

"And for good reason—" pointed out the smaller orange Kat—"because from what Professor Hackle told us about the Predators, is that they're hunters, following strict codes of honor. Usually during the hottest days of summer, they travel from one galaxy to another, looking for honorable prey—whether they be Kat or otherwise. They're a very intelligent species, giving them a cutting edge in inventing strong, powerful, highly advanced armor and plasma-based weapons; a mask that gives them thermal, neuro, and tech visions; and a cloaking device that could almost render them completely invisible as we all saw earlier."

"As if their brains weren't enough," added the larger yellow Kat, "the Predators also have the brawns and the endurance to take multiple shots virtually without slowing down. They are bigger, stronger, and probably heavier—the ultimate killing machines."

"But you know the worst thing about the Predators?" Razor asked rhetorically. "It's what they do to their prey: They don't just kill them for their skulls—they _mutilate_ their prey's body."

Batman stood up. "We must keep moving. We need to try and stay one step ahead of the Predators in every way possible. It's getting close to nightfall—the sooner we find shelter, the better."

As soon as the heroes went back to trekking, however, Ron tapped Raimundo on the shoulder.

The Xiaolin monk stopped for a moment and faced the spy girl's goofball sidekick/boyfriend. "What's up, amigo?"

Ron scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as he spoke. "Oh, nothing, really. I was just thinking about our encounter with those alien . . . Hound . . . things from earlier."

"Oh, those Dogs that look like they've been beaten with an Ugly Stick? What about them?"

". . . I just wanted to thank you for saving me when I held that one by the horns."

Rai shrugged his shoulders in a no-big-deal sort of way. "No problemo, man. That's what heroes do after all, right? Watch each other's backs?"

"Yeah, I guess you have a point there. Is there any way I can return the favor somehow?"

Raimundo held up his hands as he had a somewhat shocked look to his face. "Whoa, there's really no need to."

"I know, but it's the least I can do, right?"

". . . Your choice. Just don't do anything dumb, _cumprende, hermano_?"

"Uhh . . . yeah, whatever you just said, heh-heh." The two of them finished by awkwardly giving each other a high-five.

After Raimundo turned away to follow the others, Kim approached Ron.

"So, what were you and Raimundo talking about?" asked the spy girl.

"Not much," shrugged the blond-haired teen, "other than thanking him for saving me from those alien Dogs from earlier."

"Oh. Right, about that Ron, I just want to say I'm sorry."

"Sorry about what, Kim?"

"For not helping you when that thing tried to attack you—I just froze out of fear and . . . well, you understand, don't you?"

"No need to apologize, KP—I completely understand what you mean."

"Good." With that, Kim leaned in and kissed Ron's cheek.

The blond-haired teenager looked at his girlfriend confused. "What was that for?"

The spy girl just smiled at him before responding, "Just my way of thanking you for earlier."

As Kim walked on with the rest of the heroic entourage, Ron silently chuckled before catching up with them.

* * *

At least an hour passed by the heroes as they trekked onward through the jungle of death. Batman stopped them for a moment, his eyes mere slits as he focused on the scenery before them.

"What's wrong?" asked Spider-Man.

The Dark Knight stayed silent for only a moment before answering his allies. "I stopped to make sure there weren't any traps. Since we are dealing with deadly hunters, we must be cautious of our surroundings."

Kim shook her head as she clutched it with a hand while walking. "Right—I can't believe I overlooked that one detail."

Raimundo, who was walking adjacent to the spy girl while taking in the Dark Knight's advice, noticed a patch of leaves that were all oddly facing one direction in a rectangular shape. A thought snapped inside the Xiaolin monk's head as he noticed Kim was about to step right on the patch. "Kim—look out!"

Shoving the spy girl out of the way (and accidentally knocking Ron down as well since he was on the other side of his girlfriend), Raimundo lost his balance as he fell face-first onto the patch, the leaves giving way to a deep pit lined with sharp spears on the bottom. As fortune would have it for Rai, the pit was about as long as he is tall (at least with his arms up), so he was able to grab a ledge, yet with difficulty.

Looking down in the pit, the wide-eyed Xiaolin monk rambled off a mixture of words in Spanish and Portuguese as beads of perspiration poured from his face, all while slowly losing his grip. Danny, Betty, and the adult heroes ran over to help him, but they were too late as Raimundo lost his grip on the ledge.

Knowing what would come next, Rai closed his eyes tightly and clenched his jaws as he fell. But then, he didn't feel the sensation of freefall; he felt like he was suspended in air. Opening his eyes, his head looking down, Raimundo saw that he was dangling a few yards above the spears. The Xiaolin monk then turned his head upward to see Kim holding onto his left arm, while Ron held onto his right, both of them smiling in relief, with Rai smiling back the same way.

After the two spies helped the Xiaolin monk up and out of the pit, the threesome moved a safe distance away from it.

"Err," said Rai, trying to find the right words, "thanks for helping me out back there."

"Of course—" Kim smiled—"we heroes must stick together, remember?"

"Since you saved _our_ lives, it's the least we can do, right?" smirked Ron with a shrug.

The Xiaolin monk nodded as he smiled back. "Right." Raimundo then chuckled to himself and spoke in an awkward tone. "I guess we're even."

With fists on his hips, T-Bone smirked as he faced Razor. "Looks like someone has kept on their toes, eh pal?"

The smaller orange SWAT Kat, with his arms folded across his chest, chuckled as he faced the larger yellow Kat. "You can say that again."

"All right then," stated Batman after a moment, "let's go."


	4. Chapter 4: Skeletons in the Closet

**Sorry for the last chapter being so short, folks. Believe it or not, I was originally going to put the whole story together in only three chapters, but seeing how long each chapter would have been, I decided to divide the story into a few more chapters depending on what part seemed appropriate for a chapter in itself. But enough on that, enjoy the fourth chapter as we explore some **_**skeletons in the closet**_**. . . .**

* * *

The heroes moved onward, not encountering any more traps, Predator Hounds, or the Predators themselves. So far, they never even encountered any other beings along the trail they made for that matter.

The group of ten reached their way through a stretch of open clearing with few trees and bushes scattered throughout. Some of the heroes had grown weary from all the walking; even though he didn't look like it, Batman grew exhausted as well, none of them spotting a cave or any other form of shelter, and the sun was slowly setting. The caped crusader knew that it would be dangerous at the moment to sleep out in the open with the Predators most likely hot on their heels. However, that didn't seem to occur to one specific member of the group.

"Hey Batman," called Ron somnolently, "can we take a breather for a sec?"

The Dark Knight turned around with an understanding look on his face. "I know that some of you are tired right now, but we must keep moving until we find shelter. Once we do, we need to figure out a way we can get off the planet."

Despite showing no fatigue on his face, Batman wasn't able to fool Kim so easily. "Looks like you need to rest also, Batman."

"How about we just take five?" requested DarkWing, rubbing either of his flat feet.

Looking about the area, and keeping his ears on alert for the alien monsters, Batman thought for a moment and nodded. ". . . Very well, we shall stop here, but only for five minutes."

"Relax," rest assured Raimundo, "we're cool with that, Batman. Heck, five minutes is all _I_ need to rest my feet."

The heroes had spread out to different spots: Batman sat on a boulder, thinking things over; Raimundo propped himself up against a tree as he sat down, his arms crossed in front of his chest; Kim and Ron sat down on the ground back-to-back; the SWAT Kats, two of the few heroes who really weren't tired, checked their assorted weapons to see if they were full and in good condition; Atomic Betty tried calling in Admiral DeGill or anyone who would pick up her signal, but to no avail as she sighed in solemn defeat; Spider-Man just stood there, contemplating if it was safe to reveal his true identity to these nine strangers (he told only a few people that he was really Peter Parker, one of them being his long-time crush and now his wife Mary Jane Watson)—they were all heroes, so they could probably keep his secret, but soon started questioning himself whether or not it was really a good time and/or a good idea; and as for Danny Phantom and DarkWing Duck, seeing the only available good spot to really rest their feet was a stump, sat down back-to-back with their hands supporting their heads as they leaned forward, their faces twisted into glares as they thought about one and the other.

Soon, however, DarkWing's glare turned into an ordinary frown as he thought about some of the sacrifices Danny took to try and keep him and their motley crew in one piece. The ghost-boy, his angry look now turning sad, moiled over the thought about snapping at the Duck vigilante as he scolded him, yet realized that maybe—just _maybe_—DW was actually concerned for his well-being after all, despite the differences they had since they landed on the cursed planet and crossed paths.

Danny was the first to turn his head around and speak. "Hey, uh, DarkWing?"

"Yes?" asked the Duck vigilante in a crestfallen tone as he focused his attention on the ghost-boy.

"I've been thinking about what happened back at the lake—you know, the argument we had?"

"What about it, Danny?"

"Well . . . I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for snapping at you like that. And I'm sorry for waking up that thing at the Predators' campsite, which resulted in blowing our cover. And I'm sorry for nearly blasting you when we first met."

"It's okay—I'm over all that; besides, the latter two were really unintentional. And I forgive you for all the differences we had all day."

"Including my references about you being Howard the Duck? Because I take all those back."

"Yep, I forgive you."

Danny then forced a smirk. "And for using your hat as target practice?"

DarkWing chuckled at that. "Yeah, it's all good." Soon though, he became serious, but more in a heartfelt sort of way as he continued. "I too apologize for scolding you countless times all day. You see, it's just that you're still a kid, and I'm just one of those people who get seriously bothered to see kids—or teenagers—get hurt in some way, you know?"

"I understand that. You sound like you're somebody's dad aren't you?"

"Actually, I am. Back in St. Canard, I have an adopted daughter—Gosalyn. She's only a little girl, but kind of like you in some ways—headstrong, looks danger in the eye and practically laughs at its face, and out of curiosity, you wouldn't happen to be a trouble-maker or anything, would you?"

"Hmm . . . yeah, I cause mischief during my spare-time away from ghost-fighting."

"I thought so—I wouldn't be surprised if the two of you hit it off as buddies—but both of you really have your hearts in the right place. That's why I was upset when you were putting yourself in the middle of danger earlier, because you reminded me so much of Gosalyn that my paternal instincts just kicked in. You really are a good kid, and a great hero, Danny Phantom."

"Thanks. But in reality, my name's Danny Fenton, and as you saw earlier, I really am human, you know?"

"I figured. But how did you gain those powers to begin with?"

"It all started in my parents' lab—who are ghost hunters, by the way—and I was looking inside their ghost portal when I accidentally switched it on, resulting in ghost DNA fusing with mine."

"Strangely enough, that makes sense. . . . Anyway, do you forgive me for being harsh with you and everything? Because I forgive you in return."

"Yeah, it's all good . . . DarkWing."

"Please, call me Drake—Drake Mallard—if you wanted to, or just 'DW' for short."

Where Rai, Kim, and Ron were resting, the goofball teen mused over something.

"Man," stated Ron, "let me tell you, Kim, that when we get back to Middleton, the first thing I'll do is have myself a Naco, you know what I'm saying?"

"Okay," interjected Raimundo, "I'm going to ask, but I feel like I'm going to regret it. . . . _Naco_?"

"Yeah," stated Kim, "it's Ron's little creation—they're nachos put together in a taco."

The teenage Xiaolin monk rose his eyebrows at that. "Really? . . . Well, since you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense."

DW smirked as he silently chuckled. "You know Kim, it sounds like my partner Launchpad would _really_ hit it off quite well with Ron—just thought I might throw that out there."

The famed web-slinger, after overhearing the conversation between Danny Phantom and DarkWing Duck, brought up the subject on DW's true identity. "So DarkWing, you aren't worried about us knowing your identity?"

"What? No way!" dismissively jeered the anthro-Duck. "I trust you guys. And personally, if you guys have any secret identities, I won't tell anybody."

"Then I guess I can trust you guys in keeping my true identity a secret?"

"As heroes," said Danny, "you have our word."

Spider-Man nodded his head before he took off his mask, revealing his true self. "My real name is Peter Parker. Aside from being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, I'm just a photographer for the Daily Bugle. I got my powers after getting bit by a radioactive Spider—the web, on the other hand, is an invention of mine that I made back home."

"Well," mused DarkWing, "that explains, 'cause I've been wondering about that since we first met."

"You thinking what I am, Razor?" asked T-Bone.

Razor nodded in response. "I follow you, T-Bone."

"What're you two talking about?" asked Betty confusedly.

"About revealing who _we_ are, what else?" rhetorically asked the larger yellow Kat. "You see, guys, 'T-Bone' isn't my real name. In reality it's Chance Furlong."

"As for me," interjected the smaller orange Kat, "I, too, use the name 'Razor' as my secret identity. My real name's Clawson, Jake Clawson."

"But why the secret identity?" shrugged a confused DarkWing.

"To make a long story short," nodded T-Bone, "the two of us used to be pilots for the Enforcers before Feral, the commander, dishonorably discharged us for damage done to the Enforcers HQ."

"But in truth," interjected Razor, "Feral was responsible for most of the damage. However, he still sent us to work at the Megakat City junkyard to pay off for what happened."

"So you two became vigilantes, hmm?" asked Batman.

"You got it."

"So, what about the rest of you?" asked the larger yellow Kat to the other heroes.

"Interesting question," said Betty, "because I . . . in a sense . . . live a double life. My real name is Betty Barrett and I'm really just an average adolescent back on Earth in a suburb called Moose Jaw—that's in Canada. But anyway, aside from being the Galactic Guardian, I pretty much live a normal life."

"Well _we_ can relate to that, eh KP?" chuckled Ron.

"Aside from working as spies?" slyly inquired Kim to her boyfriend, raising an eyebrow before turning her attention to Betty. "Yeah, we know just what you mean Betty."

After putting his mask back on, Spider-Man looked to Batman. "What about you, Batman? What made you decide in becoming a superhero?"

"With all due respect," answered the Dark Knight, "I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"Why not?" shrugged Danny. "We pretty much told you some of _our_ secrets. And you do know that we're all heroes here, right? So you can trust us."

". . . It's not that I don't trust any of you; it's just that my origin might be a little disturbing compared to yours."

"You know what, Batman?" asked Rai from where he still rested. "Take a look at me. You're looking at somebody who's traveled around the world looking for Shen Gong Wu, faced a Heylin witch who used to be a ghost, stared at a Cyclops, butted heads with a gangster, witnessed a Heylin warrior change into a giant Lizard, and rode on the back of a Dragon—so I think I can handle it, and so can everyone else here; all of us have seen some pretty dark stuff in our day. If you think we can't handle hearing your story, you've got another thing coming."

The caped crusader looked a little thoughtful at the Xiaolin monk's statement before saying, "Very well, I shall tell you in short. You see, the reason I became a superhero started when I was only a boy. My parents and I just left a theater back in Gotham, when a mugger held them at gunpoint. . . . Unfortunately, he pulled the trigger and . . ." Batman paused with hesitation, unwilling to speak further.

"You mean . . . your parents were—?" asked Ron.

"Yes," solemnly interrupted the Dark Knight, "I'm afraid so. A good friend of my folks took me under his wing, and ever since that day, I decided to become the caped crusader. It was criminal scum who made me who I am now, because every time I apprehend a crook, I seem to gain a little peace of mind."

Kim sadly looked at the ground. "That's so sad. We're sorry about that."

"Yeah," agreed Raimundo out loud before muttering to himself, "that _is_ a dark secret."

"What was that, Rai?" asked Danny as he and the other heroes looked to the Xiaolin monk.

The Brazilian teen hesitated for a moment before answering. ". . . Err, nothing. What about your true identity, Batman? Some of us told you who we really are."

"I'm sorry, Raimundo," apologized the caped crusader, "but I can't tell you that. Maybe once our ordeal is over."

Ron looked thoughtful for a moment before looking at his girlfriend. "Hey, KP?"

"Yes?" Kim asked her boyfriend.

"I've been thinking about our last mission—the one we just accomplished before coming here?"

"What about it?"

"Well, remember when you told me to leave Rufus back home before we went off on the mission?"

"Yeah, I remember that. I also remember that you were upset, considering he's been with us on so many missions."

"Yeah, well, I just want you to know that I have gotten over it since coming here."

"Oh you have?"

"I have. In fact, in a sense, I'm glad he isn't with us and not in the same situation we're in. I'm actually glad that you convinced me to leave him behind, you know?"

The spy girl nodded her head. "I bet you'll be happy to see him when we get back home, hmm?"

"You bet." The goofball teen paused as he saw a tear rolling down the spy girl's cheek. "Kim, are you crying?"

"No, Ron, I'm not crying," she lied, "I just got something in my eye."

However, the goofball teen didn't believe his girlfriend as he just looked at her.

"Okay," sighed Kim in defeat, wiping away another tear, "so I was."

"About Rufus?" guessed Ron.

"Well, yes _and_ no. Don't get me wrong, I _do_ miss Rufus, but . . ." The spy girl paused as she momentarily turned her gaze away from her sidekick/boyfriend.

"But what, KP?" asked the blond-haired teen.

"Something else has been bothering me just before our last mission that I should have told you about."

"What's been bothering you?"

"Well . . . I had an argument with my brothers Tim and Jim. You know how they're always bugging me, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, they kept pushing my buttons 'til I just lost my temper and shouted 'I never wish to see you Tweebs again.' Well, now that we're stuck here, Ron, I have a feeling that I'll never be able to apologize to them."

"Kim, don't say that. We'll get out of here—I'm sure of it. Aren't we?"

"Trust me, I hope we do get out of here. But aside from that, I'm afraid those Predators will catch up to us."

"But Kim, you're not afraid of anyone."

"Well that's just it, Ron. What we're facing isn't human."

"You know," pointed out Raimundo, "she makes a pretty good point. Now, like I said earlier, I have faced some bizarre creatures _and_ people in my time. But those Predators really take the cake on that one."

". . . That reminds me, Raimundo, do you have any secrets you want to tell us?"

Rai's heart jumped at that question as he uneasily inquired, "Err, what do you mean?"

"Well it seems that everybody had some kind of secret," shrugged the goofball teen, "so it seemed . . . well, you know."

"Right," dragged an apprehensive Raimundo, "well, I have nothing to hide. All I can tell you guys about me is that I come from a family-owned circus in Brazil, I'm a trained Xiaolin monk who's able to control wind, I'm a bit of a rebellious smart aleck, and I have a liking for video games and soccer—me in a nutshell."

Spider-Man looked about him, his motions taking on those of a worried person's. Noticing that, Danny walked over to the famed web-slinger. "Hey Spider-Man, is there something wrong?"

Everyone turned to their two allies and immediately stood up rigid, even Raimundo himself overheard Danny's quote as he stood up rigid (with intimidation) at the same time with his allies.

"My Spidey senses are tingling . . ." Spider-Man paused, ". . . I don't think we're alone."

"May I suggest . . . LOOKING BEHIND YOU!?" frightfully exclaimed a wide-eyed Rai, pointing in the direction of Danny and the web-slinger. Whipping their heads around frantically, the other nine heroes looked in the direction the teenage Xiaolin monk was pointing, only to see nothing. With the exception of Batman, and probably Spider-Man, the heroes looked back at their friend, worry and confusion mixed on their faces.

Raimundo just shrugged his shoulders as he spoke in a casual tone. "It was just a suggestion." A chill ran up the Xiaolin monk's spine as a fast scuttling sound whizzed by behind him. "Tell me I'm not the only one who just heard that."

From her right, Betty jumped at the same sound Rai just heard. "No. . . . I hear it also."

"Everyone," stated Batman, "try to keep close. Whatever's out there could be one of those Predators closing in on us."

While most of the heroes followed the Dark Knight's word, only T-Bone and Razor stayed in front of their colleagues, ready to fight.

"Don't worry about us—" assured T-Bone—"we'll try and slow that thing down."

"How?" shrugged Betty.

"Simple—" stated Razor—"once that thing shows itself in the open and tries to attack us, we'll have it signed, sealed, and delivered in a net."

Between two trees, the blur stopped in front of the heroes and stared at them. The bipedal extra-terrestrial wasn't one of the Predators, for it had sharp teeth, hollow-looking black eyes, and a lean body whose gray armored skin looked like a cross between bones and dead tree bark. The creature, called a River Ghost, hissed at the SWAT Kats and charged at them.

"Ready for it, Razor?" asked T-Bone, aiming with his weapon strapped to his arm.

"Yeah," said Razor, aiming with the same weapon, "ready when you are, T-Bone."

The River Ghost jumped in the air. Most of the heroes behind the SWAT Kats flinched out of fear. But just as T-Bone and Razor were about to unleash their nets, a loud bang was heard, followed by the River Ghost dropping in front of the pilot vigilantes like a ton of bricks. After a moment of silence, the heroes who turned their sight away looked back with shock and confusion.

"What do you make of it?" shrugged Razor to his partner-in-crime-fighting.

Lightly jabbing at the limp creature with his foot, T-Bone looked back at the smaller orange Kat. "Looks dead to me. Yet neither of us did anything."

"What drove that thing to attack us?" inquired Danny.

Batman then answered, "It probably thought _we_ were the ones who dropped it here."

"**Over here.**"

* * *

**Hmm, who do you suppose that voice belongs to? Prepare to meet my first OC and read a rather dark secret from one of the main characters in the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5: The Darkest Secret of All

**Just a brief note here: Want to know another reason why angst is the second main genre to the story? Well, the reason's all here in the fifth chapter.**

The heroes froze as they heard an odd voice coming from nowhere. "**Over here. . . . Over here. . . . Over here. . . . Turn around.**"

Hearing the voice coming from behind, Spider-Man turned around slowly and was now face-to-face with somebody wearing a Predator mask just as the latter seemed to appear out of thin air. Aside from the mask, the individual wore a holey pair of cargo pants and a shirt with rolled-up sleeves that was open from the neck halfway down the chest. Strapped to the belt the individual wore were an array of alien weapons.

"What the heck are you?" whispered the famed web-slinger.

The mysterious stranger took off the Predator mask, and revealed to be a bald, pale-skinned man (human) with bushy eyebrows, a bulbous nose, and stubbles. On his body were colorless tattoos: skulls running from the right side of his neck down his right arm (most of the tattoo, however, was underneath his shirt), LOVE and HATE tattoos across his knuckles, and a Scorpion on his chest. "I'm alive. I'm the one who got away. He who fights and runs away lives to see another day. I'm the one you don't mess with." The man spoke in a thick Irish accent. Amongst the heroes, Raimundo caught a glimpse of the Irishman's two gold teeth on the right side of his mouth—an incisor and a canine—as he spoke.

"The name's Kearny—" spoke the man—"Roman Kearny, since you asked. But back to the main point: I heard all of you. I heard you land here, and I heard every word the ten of you uttered since then. You talk too loud; if I could hear you, then _they_, the hunters, can as well. I also smelled you; if I can, so can the hunters."

Rai's eyes narrowed to a seething glare as he looked at the man he, for some reason, had a strong distrust of. "You were also at the campsite, weren't you?"

Roman chuckled briefly. "Aye, indeed I was. You are quite smart for a kid."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you want, Mr. Kearny?" asked Batman, sensing hostility would come from the teenage Xiaolin monk and the deviant-looking stranger.

"Ah yes," nodded Roman, "I'm glad you asked. You see, since I've heard everything you folks said, I also recall hearing—multiple times—you were looking for a way off this planet, correct?"

". . . Yes."

"Well, what a coincidence—so am I. I have been trying to get off this planet for a long time. You see, I was with my team taking care of . . . business in Dublin. But when the job was done, all I remember was a white flash of light; when I woke up, I was sky-borne. Looking back now, it was quite a rush. Bum, bum-bum-bum, bum, bum. Bum-bum-bum, bum, bum. Heh-heh-heh. My team and I regrouped after landing on this planet, but before we knew it, we were getting picked off by the hunters. One by one, my team was hunted and killed. I was the only one to survive and slay two of the hunters. Only one got away, who I like to call 'Rí Bás,'—translation 'Death-King,' heh-heh-heh, for reasons you might find out if you stay here long enough."

"I see. . . . If you wish to join us in trying to escape the Predators and finding a way back home, then you are more than welcome to."

"_Batman_!" said Raimundo through clenched jaws.

"I'm honored," grinned Roman, "but you see, it's about nightfall, which is the best time for the hunters. My advice to you is to find shelter."

"Yes," nodded the Dark Knight, "that is what we're doing first."

"Well then, no need to look further. I have made a shelter some paces away from here. I suggest you follow me."

"What do you take us for, a bunch of suckers?" snapped the teenage Xiaolin monk. "We're not following you."

All Roman did was shrug his shoulders indifferently. "Very well. But I must warn you—stay out in the open, night or day, and you'll be picked off by the hunters before you can even say '_Is fearr glas ná amhras_.' Besides, since I've been here apparently _much_ longer than the ten of you, I know everything about the hunters." **(A/N: **_**Is fearr glas ná amhras**_** is Irish for "A lock is better than suspicion.")**

"So?"

"So, if you and your friends want to go back to your homes in one piece, then you must know about the enemy. Besides, I don't believe two night-walkers, two presumably washed-up pilots, two mutated humans, one space girl, two spies, and one Xiaolin monk—all with little to no knowledge about their enemies—won't stand a chance against them."

"What do you mean little to no knowledge?" asked Razor.

"Yeah," agreed T-Bone, "we know everything about the Predators."

"Aye," nodded Roman, "but _these_ hunters are worse than the ones you spoke of earlier. These hunters are the ones you need to know about most importantly. So what do you say now, Xiaolin monk?"

Raimundo clenched his fists in anger, but he knew that Roman might have a point. The Xiaolin monk reluctantly answered, ". . . Fine. Lead the way."

The tattooed man chuckled as he nodded. "I thought you would see things my way. Everyone follow me."

After Roman rudely brushed past Raimundo, the latter glared flintily at the Irishman, his face turned away from Rai before the other heroes followed.

Unbeknownst to the other nine heroes, Rai was the only one who heard rustling from the foliage. Whipping his head towards the sound, the Xiaolin monk spotted the scarred face of a man who looked to be of African descent peeking through a bush. As Raimundo stared on at him, the man stared right back before lifting an index finger, silently giving a sign to the Xiaolin monk to be quiet.

"Hey, Raimundo!" called Danny. "Are you coming or what?"

Hearing the ghost-boy, Raimundo turned around and started to follow his friends and Roman. From behind the group, the Xiaolin monk caught a glimpse of the Irish flag tattoo on the back of the deviant-looking man's neck; Rai's green eyes narrowed in angry suspicion. Walking at a quicker pace, Raimundo started walking beside Batman.

"_Psst_!" whispered the teenage Xiaolin monk to the Dark Knight, from the corner of his mouth. "_Batman_!"

The caped crusader heard Rai's whisper and faced him, the latter motioning his head to the back of the pack.

"What is it, Raimundo?" inquired Batman as the two slowed their pace.

"Nothing," whispered Rai, "I'm just wondering why you're letting everybody follow Roman. I don't trust that guy—there's something about him that makes my skin crawl every time I look at his tattoos. Don't they symbolize something or what? I've seen pictures of them somewhere, but I can't remember for the life of me what they signify."

"I understand your concern, Raimundo, but what Roman told us earlier is true. In order to survive and find a way back home, we need to learn about the Predators; he might know something that even the SWAT Kats aren't aware of. In order to stay alive, we must pick a side."

"Yeah—_our_ side. I mean, how do we know he's not like some kind of sociopath?"

"Don't worry, Raimundo—I'll keep an eye on Roman. In the meantime, he doesn't seem to be a threat to us."

". . . I hope you know what you're doing. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Roman stopped in front of the group of ten to a large, quite other-worldly compound. "Here we are everyone—my humble abode. Keep in mind to not fire off any weapons, because the entire ship is gasoline central, heh-heh-heh."

"Gee," said Kim sarcastically, "thanks for the tip, Roman."

The deviant-looking man of Irish descent slid the door open to his hideout, motioning with his hand to the heroes to follow him in. Using the flashlight on his gun's scope, Roman lit the way as the heroes followed him, all while the faint sound of splashing from the shallow gasoline they stepped in echoed in the cavernous husk of the compound.

After stopping in front of a door, Roman turned to the heroes with a single nod of his head. "We're here." The tattooed man opened the door to a slightly-dim room filled with ragged blankets, packets of dehydrated meals, shields, and weapons ranging from guns to grenades to even swords; but not all the weapons were human, or even from wherever DW and the SWAT Kats came from—about half of the arsenal came from the Predators or some other intelligent life.

"What a dump!" declared Raimundo as he and his friends took in the entire scene and entered the room. "You actually live here?"

"Oh no, of course not," answered a sarcastic Roman, "this is my summer home. My winter home is back in Honolulu—you know, palm trees, sandy beaches, and the girls: ooh-la-la." The man then chuckled at his derisiveness as he walked away from the Xiaolin monk.

Rai squinted an eye as he watched Roman turn his back towards him. "Everybody's a comedian."

"This place," announced Roman to all the heroes, "this is the only shelter where Death-King and his hunters will never find us. Well, so long as you have the know-how about our friends outside, and how to move around in this compound."

Elsewhere in the room, Ron was fiddling around with what looked to be a metal breastplate with dried-on fluorescent green liquid splattered across it. Kim was about to say something to her goofball boyfriend before the Irish deviant cut in.

"Relax, 'Lara Croft'," assured Roman, "I'll tell him. Hey, 'Johnny English.' I suggest you keep your hands to yourself. Certain people don't like their belongings being touched by anybody. 'Course, I happen to be one of those people. You may look, and you may ask about it, but it's not for touching, my friend."

The goofy teen awkwardly set the breastplate down.

"You see," started Roman, directing his attention on all the heroes, "I use it to hide my heat signature from the hunters. Their masks give them three special 'visions' as I would like to call them. Now, the mask I wear is the exact same one from one of the hunters I have killed in the past. If I remember correctly, I have probably killed four total—all of them were led by Death-King, who always eluded me as well as I have eluded him."

". . . So Roman," stated Batman, "you told us earlier that you know about the planet's natives, and a way of going home, is that true?"

"Ah yes," nodded the bald man, "yes indeed. Find yourself a spot, and listen closely. You too, 'Bruce Lee'—your life may depend on it."

"Really?" asked Raimundo sarcastically. "I'm so scared right now."

". . . You should be, heh-heh-heh."

After the heroes situated themselves in the hazy room, Roman nodded with approval before clearing his throat. "Now then, let me tell you about the hunters. You must know there are two different types of them out there—now they're similar, but they're different. It's kind of like the difference between Cats and Tigers, or Dogs and Wolves. The larger ones—the ones who are running things outside—and the smaller ones have something of a blood feud going on for quite a long time."

"So," confusedly cut in Ron, "do the larger ones hunt us for sport as well?"

"Oh yes," continued Roman, "they bring in fresh meat season after season—I mean, humans and _all_ sorts of alien species you wouldn't believe, heh-heh-heh; they bring it in, hunt it down, and kill it—all in the exact order I've listed them; trust me, I know since I've been here for . . . hmm, now I'm not sure—probably seven, ten seasons maybe. . . . But anyway, once in awhile, one of us kills one of them. Huh, and let me tell you, it's when they get _real_ interested. You see, they learn real quick," and Roman snapped his fingers at the word "quick" for emphasis, "and they adapt; they develop a whole new set of skills. They come back next season in threes—always threes. Their armor might have changed, but also their weapons have changed, their tactics have changed. . . . I kind of find it rather amazing myself."

"So it's like an evolution or something, right?" asked T-Bone.

"Yeah," nodded Razor in agreement, "an evolution in becoming a better hunter or whatnot?"

The bald man nodded at the SWAT Kats. "Mm-hmm, exactly."

"You said they come back. How _do_ they come back?" remembered DarkWing.

"The hunters?" Roman raised an eyebrow. "They have a ship."

"A ship?" asked Kim, a tone of skepticism in her voice.

"Yes," nodded Roman, "about thirty yards from their camp. Huh-huh-huh, I'm not surprised you weren't able to see it, since the ship is also disguised."

"I _knew_ it!" declared Raimundo. "You see, guys? Roman truly _was_ at the campsite when we were ambushed—I just _knew it_!"

"Oh, did you, now? Well, somebody give this monk a prize, huh-huh-huh-huh."

"But you could have helped us out if you were. Why didn't you?" asked Betty.

It was then that silence hung in the air like the thick smell of the gasoline that covered the floors outside the room. After a moment of silence, Roman started speaking again. "I know you're all heroes and other forms of crime-fighters, and killing the enemy is the last resort you ever want to take. But let me tell you something, killing the hunters is the only way of truly defeating them; you can kill them in every way you can. They don't have many weaknesses. If you want to survive, you'll have to dig in deep and stay here."

"Oh yeah?" asked Danny, cocking an eyebrow. "Well _we're_ choosing door number two: getting out of the valley."

"Is there an edge to the preserve?" asked Spider-Man.

"An edge to the preserve?" asked the tattooed man with a smirk. "Allow me to inform you heroes, during my second season here—no, wait, it was my _third_ season, actually—I was walking in the same direction as you heroes were, trying to reach the edge of the preserve, but after some time of walking, I realized something: There is no edge of the preserve. And there's no way of getting off this rock, either."

". . . Maybe you and your friend can fly the ship you mentioned earlier, considering it's the only way off the rock?" asked DarkWing with one eye squinted, who was also referring to the Predator who was strung up on the totem back at the campsite.

". . . You know," realized Roman, "it's a brilliant idea. The whole time I've been here, surviving and trying to find a way off this planet, it never occurred to me to . . . commandeer the ship. 'Course, I wouldn't know how to fly it, only the one chained to the totem, most likely." A smile slowly spread across his face as he looked at the heroes. ". . . Unless of course _you_ would know."

Realizing that Roman was speaking in reference to he and his nine friends, Batman's eyes became mere slits as he flatly stated, "We could give it a shot."

"I'm sure you would, my good man, I'm sure you would, huh-huh-huh." It was then that Roman's face became serious all over again. "Now then, I'm going to make my rounds and make sure the hunters won't detect us in any way. You heroes may relax, but no noise, understand? They're out there. . . . They're always out there."

After Roman left the room to who knew where else, silence had hit the heroes again. . . .

It was then that Danny broke the stillness as he directed his attention to Atomic Betty. "Out of curiosity, Betty, the whole time we were trying to figure out which rainforest we're in, what occurred in your mind?"

"In _my_ mind?" asked the Galactic Guardian. "I don't understand."

"Well, you said that before coming here, you were on some other planet. I mean, did you think we were on a different planet the whole time or something?"

"Actually, no. I thought I was back on Earth before taking a glimpse of the sky."

The ghost-boy then nodded. "Okay, just wondering."

". . . All right, guys," said Rai, standing up, "we've learned all we could about those 'larger' Predators, right? We know that they have a ship, right? So, all we have to do is go back to the Predators' campsite and ask that smaller Predator chained up to help us out, now let's get out of here."

"Not so fast, Raimundo—" Batman rose a hand at that—"we can't leave now. Roman said that the Predators—"

"Roman says, Roman says—I don't care. If we stay here, he's going to kill us in our sleep if we give him the chance."

"Raimundo, I understand how you feel about Roman. Tell you the truth, after examining his tattoos, I realized that they _do_ symbolize something—they are all criminal-related. There is also no doubt in my mind that Roman is probably a part of the Irish Mafia. I had my suspicions after he mentioned taking care of business in Dublin, not to mention the Irish flag tattooed on the back of his neck."

"Oh, you say that too, eh? . . . Look, let's get out of here, and no, we're _not_ taking him with us. I would rather much trust one of the Predators than Roman—hands down."

"The heck is your problem with him, Rai?" asked Kim. "Ever since we ran into Roman, you've been acting like a jerk and beyond around him."

"Didn't you hear what Batman said?" Raimundo continued. "Those tattoos are the same ones that crooks would wear—not to mention that he could be a member of the Irish Mafia."

"Oh come on!" scoffed Ron dismissively. "If Roman's as bad as he is scary-looking, then why didn't he try to mug us or something?"

The Xiaolin monk looked at the goofball teen for a moment. "You amaze me. You and your girlfriend here are involved in espionage and yet _you_ don't get it. Roman's trying to earn our trust, just waiting."

"Waiting for what?" asked Razor with suspicion.

"Waiting to _strike_, what else?" Rai questioned. "That is what traitors do—it comes natural for them."

T-Bone glared with suspicion. "And how do you even know he would betray us?"

"Because it takes one to know one, doesn't it?" angrily retorted Raimundo. It was then that another moment of silence struck the heroes as they looked on with shock on their faces, along with Rai's angry look disappearing as he realized that he said something he shouldn't have.

Out of the corner of his mouth, Ron whispered uneasily to his girlfriend, "Awkward."

Raimundo sat back down, his hands covering his eyes as he hunched over, shaking his head. "I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have said that."

"Raimundo, don't you want to talk to us about it?" asked Kim gently.

"No," said the teenage Xiaolin monk as he looked up, "I _can't_ tell you guys. If I do, then all of you will treat me like some kind of villain."

"Don't you think you'll feel better telling us, Rai?" asked Danny. "I mean, it's not like you're the only one who has some dark secret, remember?"

"True," sadly nodded Rai, "but none of your dark secrets, guys, could ever compare to mine."

"Look, Raimundo, if you tell us your secret, we promise not to judge you in any way. Trust me, you'll feel better once you get whatever's bothering you off your chest."

The Brazilian teen took a quick moment of silence before standing up, walking over to one corner of the room, and looking at his reflection in a Predator's weapon that looked similar to an ulu twice its usual size, yet marked with letters in the Predator language on the handle; he briefly saw a flash of his face in the blade, twisted with anger and envy, in front of a wall of flames, but after blinking once, his face was filled with fear and sorrow, realizing that a flashback played in his mind. Rai then let out a melancholy sigh, still gripping the cold weapon in his hand. "All right, I'll tell you guys. You see, I have betrayed my friends and allies—Clay, Omi, Kimiko, Dojo, Master Fung, everyone at the Xiaolin Temple. I betrayed them for all the wrong reasons. It happened back when my friends and I were in battle with an evil spirit named Mala Mala Jong. I have shown my bravery and all, but I did it foolishly, resulting in me being the only monk to not receive the Sash of the Apprentice. And how did I repay Master Fung for that? By turning over to the Heylin, allying myself with Wuya. It took my friends almost getting killed for me to see the error of my ways, save them in time, and return to the Xiaolin. My friends and my mentor forgave me, but I never forgave myself. I was angry, I was jealous, and I felt like I was unappreciated." With his eyes clenched shut, hot tears rolled down Raimundo's face as he set his forehead against a wall. "Because of that mistake, I have to live with that memory for as long as I live. Do you know what it's like to intentionally betray your friends and allies for all the wrong reasons? I do. I know very well what that's like." After drying his eyes with two of his fingers, Rai looked back at his friends. "Believe me, if I could go back in time and talk some sense into myself and prevent that . . . act of betrayal, I would if it didn't result in messing up the future itself. But because I won't be able to, at least not properly, I have to live with that memory. So, after that and a few other accounts of betrayal by other people, I've learned what goes on in a traitor's mind, what they try to do in gaining trust in people they think they can deceive, the look in their eye, everything. And you know what else, no matter how many good deeds I accomplish, and no matter how many times I try to tell myself that I'm a hero, that memory will always come back to haunt me; I try to not let it get in the way of all my training, but it's always there—right in the back of my mind; it hasn't bothered me in awhile—just when we came here. Now you guys know why I distrust Roman so much." Raimundo sat back down, hunched over, and set his head in his hands, with the ulu on his lap. "I guess now you guys won't trust me either."

"Gosh, Raimundo," said Betty, "we never realized—sorry."

"No, _don't_ be sorry for me—a pathetic excuse for a hero. I betrayed my friends _not_ because their lives would be in danger if I didn't turn to the dark side or anything like that; if that was the case, it wouldn't hurt as much. No, I betrayed them by my own free will, in every wrong way."

"Maybe so, Raimundo," stated Batman, "but you're still a hero to us."

The Xiaolin monk looked back up at the caped crusader. "You really mean that?"

"Yes. You might have had a rocky start, but you have learned your lesson since then, correct?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You have pushed yourself in becoming a better monk, and because of your training and determination, you have moved up in the rankings and became a leader, is that true?"

"Yeah, that is true. . . . But wait a minute, how did you know—"

"Before I became the Dark Knight, I have trained myself in all areas of martial arts," the caped crusader smiled knowingly, "including the ways of the Xiaolin."

"Well I'll be darned!" breathed out Raimundo with a chuckle. "I have watched you kick some bad-guy tail on the news, and yet my friends and I didn't recognize any Xiaolin moves you've established."

Batman nodded in understanding. "That's probably because you haven't seen me control any of the elements like you and your friends are able to."

Rai frowned in thought. "That would explain everything. Are you able to control any of the elements?"

"I was unaware of that kind of training during that time. But back to the main point: you might have made some mistakes in your past, but from what you have told us, you have proven yourself above and beyond that you are a true follower of light. You have grown more determined, and a little bit wiser. Aside from the good deeds you have done back on Earth, you have provided us help in our time of need."

The other heroes looked about themselves, a few of them nodding in agreement.

"Overall," continued the Dark Knight, "a hero isn't judged on their past; a hero is judged on the good deeds they have accomplished."

Raimundo looked over at Spider-Man, who nodded in agreement; he then looked to the SWAT Kats, both of them giving the Xiaolin monk a thumbs-up; and finally, Rai looked at DarkWing Duck.

The anthro-Duck had a smile on his bill and motioned his head over to the caped crusader before declaring, "He's right, you know."

The Xiaolin monk nodded before looking to his four peers. "What about you guys? What are your thoughts?"

Danny smiled with a shrug. "What can I say? What Batman here says is true—I mean, you have helped us all out and saved a couple of our necks. If that's _not_ the act of a hero, I don't know what is."

"Kim? Ron? What about you two?"

"You're one of us Raimundo," smiled Kim, "without a doubt."

"Yeah," grinned Ron, "you're a hero all the way."

"Without a doubt, Rai," grinned Betty, "without a doubt."

Raimundo had a smile on his face as he directed his attention to all nine of his allies. "Thank you—all of you. I feel much better now."

"Now that you see we can trust you, Raimundo," said Batman, "can you trust us with Roman for a while longer?"

Rai frowned at that. ". . . Yeah. Sure."

"Good; until we head back to our respective homes, I'll keep a close eye on Roman. We better get our rest, everyone—come daybreak we'll head for the Predators' ship."

Little did Batman know was that Raimundo was lying.


End file.
